Injurious Demon-Hollow Thing
by tyedies
Summary: Renji needs to escape from the thing possessing him, but his friends are only worsening the damage. Contains lots of Renji suffering. One-shot.


**A/N: This may be a little weird and random, but hey, who am I to talk? Warning: contains lots of Renji suffering :)**

Ichigo and Renji were sitting across from each playing chess. Renji was scratching his head.

Ichigo moved his rook into position.

"Checkmate!" he said, grinning.

"This stupid game!" Renji said, throwing the board into the air.

"What do you think you're doing?! That's not my chessboard!" said Ichigo.

Renji grumbled to himself. Ichigo sighed.

"I'll let you win next time if that's what you want," Ichigo said.

"I can win without you letting me," said Renji.

The ground began to shake.

"What is this?!" shouted Renji. Both him and Ichigo readied their katanas.

"Oh, so you're the one causing this," said Ichigo. He looked at Renji.

And slashed at his shoulder. Renji was taken aback. It's not like that was his first time losing blood, but he could barely stand. At that moment, the ground stopped shaking.

"The heck, Ichigo!"

"That's what you deserve," said Ichigo.

"Wha-"

"Oh, sorry. I thought there was a hollow-demon thing possessing your body, because of your thirst for vengeance on me for winning the chess game, that caused the earthquake. I tried to injure it. Now that I think about it, no supernatural thing would ever want to possess your body. My mistake. You're still paying for a new chessboard, though," said Ichigo.

Renji didn't even know what to say. He just sat on the ground, dumbfounded.

There was a knock at the door.

"Renji? What are you doing? You said you'd train with me hours ago!" said Rukia, knocking some more at the door.

"I-ichigo, you wanna answer the door?" Renji whispered to Ichigo. Ichigo gave him a thumbs-up. Renji breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want Rukia to see him in that state, and he definitely wasn't in the mood to train.

"Hey Rukia, Renji's right here," said Ichigo.

Rukia entered the house. Renji was extremely disappointed in Ichigo, who betrayed him by letting Rukia know of his location.

"There you are. Come on, let's go!" she said to Renji.

"I can't go right now. I'm injured," said Renji.

Rukia looked at his injury quickly.

"First the hospital, then training," she said.

The lights in the house flickered.

"I wonder what that was," said Renji.

All three people drew their swords as a reflex.

"Probably nothing impor-" Renji started to say.

Rukia slashed his shoulder that wasn't bleeding.

"What was that for, Rukia?" asked Renji. It seriously seemed as though his friends wanted him to be injured.

"I thought the demon-hollow in you caused the lights to flicker. It wants to escape your body that badly," said Rukia.

"I don't have a hollow-whatever possessing my body!" said Renji. He was now lying on the ground, slowly bleeding. He grit his teeth to endure the pain.

"Well, now that I think about it, you're right. My bad Renji," said Rukia. "Time to train."

Renji just wanted to sleep.

What a crazy day it had been.

*The next day*

Renji walked out of the hospital. He couldn't move his shoulders, as they were bound up. He saw Ichigo and Rukia discussing things amongst themselves.

"Hey, how's it going?" he said.

Ichigo and Rukia drew their swords reflexively.

"Oh, it's only you," said Ichigo.

"What's going on with you guys?" asked Renji.

"You still seem like something is possessing your body," said Rukia, looking at him suspiciously.

"Right, ever since he lost a game of chess..." said Ichigo.

"That's it, Renji! The spirit of a chess master resides within your body, and since you're so bad at chess, it wants to leave," said Rukia.

"I'm not bad at chess. I only lost once," said Renji.

"Yeah, but you lost against Ichigo. Ichigo must be the world's worst chess player. I mean, second worst," said Rukia.

Renji was feeling embarrassed. He left his so-called friends in anger.

"I'll win next time!" he shouted.

He kept walking only to run into Toshiro.

"Hey, Captain Hitsugaya," said Renji.

Toshiro glared at him, gripping the handle of his katana.

"I'm not a demon, or a hollow!" said Renji, backing away.

"That sounds like something a demon-hollow would say," said Toshiro in a low voice, still glaring at Renji.

"Geez, Ichigo and Rukia have been saying the same things. You guys are insane," said Renji.

"You're coming with me," said Toshiro.

"What for?" asked Renji.

"I need to see what it is that may or may not be possessing you," said Toshiro.

Renji was dragged to a remote ice cave. Before the entrance, there was a fancily designed door.

"To get in, we need to cut your hair. There's a weight limit to getting in. Your hair weighs too much," said Toshiro.

"We can find some other way," said Renji. But it was too late, for Toshiro had already cut his hair off.

Renji almost wanted to cry. He had spent a lot of time growing his hair out.

"That was just a test. Sorry about that, but it had to be done. Now I now that you don't have a demon possessing you," said Toshiro.

"Okay, so I'm going back," said Renji.

"You have some sort of demon-hollow thing possessing you. Probably," said Toshiro.

"What does my hair have to do with any of this?" asked Renji.

"I wouldn't be able to cut your hair if you had a demon. Demons are very partial about their hair," said Toshiro.

"Demons don't even exist in our universe!" said Renji.

Renji was kneeling on the ground. A chill ran down his spine. The ground before him turned to ice. He slowly looked up. Toshiro stood, glaring at him menacingly, katana in hand. Cold air swirled in Renji's face. He shivered in fear.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"The only way to get rid of these things," said Toshiro, placing the sharp end of his blade on Renji's shoulder, "is to freeze them. You're going to feel a little bit cold."

'Don't I get any say in the matter?' thought Renji.

Cold. Shivers. Renji closed his eyes. He couldn't even move. His blood turned to ice as he fell into near-oblivion.

"You can get up now," said Toshiro, what seemed to be hours later.

Renji felt numb, but the cold was gone. His body felt lighter. He got up.

"I feel a lot better. Thanks, captain Hitsugaya," Renji said. "You know what I feel like doing now? I need to beat Ichigo in chess!"

"What an idiot," muttered Toshiro to himself. "That's what started the possession in the first place!"

**A/N: ...So, that was the story. It's really weird, I know.**


End file.
